Azure Storage Explorer troubleshooting guide

09/08/2017

6 minutes to read

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In this article

Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer (Preview) is a stand-alone app that enables you to easily work with Azure Storage data on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The app can connect to Storage accounts hosted on Azure, National Clouds, and Azure Stack.

This guide summarizes solutions for common issues seen in Storage Explorer.

Sign in issues

Only Azure Active Directory (AAD) accounts are supported. If you use an ADFS account, it’s expected that signing in to Storage Explorer would not work. Before you continue, try restarting your application and see whether the problems can be fixed.

Error: Self-Signed Certificate in Certificate Chain

There are several reasons why you may encounter this error, and the most common two reasons are as follows:

The app is connected through a “transparent proxy”, which means a server (such as your company server) is intercepting HTTPS traffic, decrypting it, and then encrypting it using a self-signed certificate.

You are running an application, such as antivirus software, which is injecting a self-signed SSL certificate into the HTTPS messages that you receive.

When Storage Explorer encounters one of the issues, it can no longer know whether the received HTTPS message is tampered. If you have a copy of the self-signed certificate, you can let Storage Explorer trust it. If you are unsure of who is injecting the certificate, follow these steps to find it:

After deleting the preceding files, you will need to sign back in to your accounts.

Proxy issues

First, make sure that the following information you entered are all correct:

The proxy URL and port number

Username and password if required by the proxy

Common solutions

If you are still experiencing issues, follow these steps to troubleshoot them:

If you can connect to the Internet without using your proxy, verify that Storage Explorer works without proxy settings enabled. If this is the case, there may be an issue with your proxy settings. Work with your proxy administrator to identify the problems.

Verify that other applications using the proxy server work as expected.

Verify that you can connect to the Microsoft Azure portal using your web browser

Verify that you can receive responses from your service endpoints. Enter one of your endpoint URLs into your browser. If you can connect, you should receive an InvalidQueryParameterValue or similar XML response.

If someone else is also using Storage Explorer with your proxy server, verify that they can connect. If they can connect, you may have to contact your proxy server admin.

Tools for diagnosing issues

If you have networking tools, such as Fiddler for Windows, you may be able to diagnose the problems as follows:

If you have to work through your proxy, you may have to configure your networking tool to connect through the proxy.

Check the port number used by your networking tool.

Enter the local host URL and the networking tool's port number as proxy settings in Storage Explorer. If this is done correctly, your networking tool starts logging network requests made by Storage Explorer to management and service endpoints. For example, enter https://cawablobgrs.blob.core.windows.net/ for your blob endpoint in a browser, and you will receive a response resembles the following, which suggests the resource exists, although you cannot access it.

Contact proxy server admin

If your proxy settings are correct, you may have to contact your proxy server admin, and

Make sure that your proxy does not block traffic to Azure management or resource endpoints.

Verify the authentication protocol used by your proxy server. Storage Explorer does not currently support NTLM proxies.

"Unable to Retrieve Children" error message

If you are connected to Azure through a proxy, verify that your proxy settings are correct. If you were granted access to a resource from the owner of the subscription or account, verify that you have read or list permissions for that resource.

Issues with SAS URL

If you are connecting to a service using a SAS URL and experiencing this error:

Verify that the URL provides the necessary permissions to read or list resources.

Verify that the URL has not expired.

If the SAS URL is based on an access policy, verify that the access policy has not been revoked.

If you accidentally attached using an invalid SAS URL and cannot detach, follow these steps:

When running Storage Explorer, press F12 to open the developer tools window.

Click the Application tab, then click Local Storage > file:// in the tree on the left.

Find the key associated with the service type of the problematic SAS URI. For example, if the bad SAS URI is for a blob container, look for the key named StorageExplorer_AddStorageServiceSAS_v1_blob.

The value of the key should be a JSON array. Find the object associated with the bad URI and remove it.

Press Ctrl+R to reload Storage Explorer.

Linux Dependencies

For Linux distros other than Ubuntu 16.04, you may need to manually install some dependencies. In general, the following packages are required:

libgconf-2-4

libsecret

Up-to-date GCC

Depending on your distro, there may be other packages you need to install. The Storage Explorer Release Notes contain specific steps for some distros.

Next steps

If none of the solutions work for you, submit your issue through the feedback tool with your email and as many details about the issue included as you can, so that we can contact you for fixing the issue.